


Lovers

by Erica_T



Series: Strangers to Lovers [3]
Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Developing Relationship, F/M, Feels, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Snark
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-05
Updated: 2013-11-16
Packaged: 2017-12-25 16:17:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 14,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/955195
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Erica_T/pseuds/Erica_T
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sequel to 'Strangers' and 'We Meet Again'.  Steve and Darcy embark on their relationship.<br/>This has become a series of one shots, rather than a cohesive storyline, so whenever I have something that fits in this universe, I'll add to it.  Enjoy!</p><p>Juggling work, Avengers, SHIELD being sneaky and science obsessed friends makes for an interesting life when you're single....     </p><p>Chapter 9 - The Press<br/>Chapter 10 - Mission</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Embarkation

Having decided they were giving what they'd started on the park bench a fair shot, the next thing they were going to have to deal with was Tony. Because Steve was quite aware that he was not going to leave well enough alone until he had all the details.

Darcy had agreed, having had to deal with him for a couple of weeks already. 

They found Jane forcing him to drink coffee in the common room of the Tower, and Steve made the awesome decision to suggest finding somewhere to have a drink. 

Darcy's skills at finding new and interesting places to eat were still well honed, and they settled at a little pub that she had found during one of her forays outside of the Tower. It was quiet and largely out of the way of general foot traffic, at least for the time of day. 

Dr. Foster, or Jane, as she had instructed him to call her, already knew the better part of the story. Having had to, in her words, 'keep Darcy from wigging out the Norwegians with her hysterics', while they were watching the footage of the battle in New York, she was well acquainted with how they'd met and the emotional fall out when Darcy had been worrying over him. The woman had also hugged him once they had surfaced from her lab. This was not something that he was used to anymore. 

It seemed to surprise Darcy as well, who'd raised her eyebrows and made a comment after a moment about Jane having her own, to which Jane had stuck out her tongue.

Now, Tony's face was going from gleeful to incredulous over the course of one beer.

"You're saying that you met -once-. In a park. For about two hours. Two days before the whole thing with Loki started going down?"

Steve looked down at Darcy, enjoying her banana daquiri. She shrugged and grinned up at him.

"Yeah, that's about it." 

"That enough to satisfy your need for quilting circle gossip Stark?" Darcy snickered at him. 

"Hardly, that's not a long story at all. If it wasn't the mother of all coincidences, I'd be disappointed." 

"I think it's more the chances of them meeting again that is the mother of all coincidences, really." Jane piped up, as she downed half a glass of wine in one go, something that made Darcy narrow her eyes at her. "I mean," she continued as if she hadn't paused at all. "You guys meet in the park, fine. That's got as much chance of happening as a Norse God falling out of the sky, and we know that has happened. Then, SHIELD makes sure that we're out of the city as soon as shit goes down in New Mexico." This was said with a distinct note of bitterness. "And then, your park gets destroyed. If Stark hadn't poached us from SHIELD, you might not have met again. At least not anytime soon." 

"Poached?" 

"Yeah, we headhunted the good Dr. Foster from SHIELD's roster of consultants. They had her on a nice little string." 

"I didn't figure it out until we saw what was going on here." Jane said as she finished her wine. She looked infinitely depressed, and Darcy nudged her with her shoulder.

"Hey. He promised, didn't he? He'll be back." 

"Yeah." 

Steve was confused, and Darcy leaned in to explain.

"She's pissed because Thor had to bugger off and take Loki back to Asgaard and didn't come and find her. SHe's not sure if she's more angry at Thor or at SHIELD." 

"So, Stark Industries made Dr. Foster an incredible offer that she couldn't refuse, and included access to lots of shiny toys, and her one condition was that we also hire her assistant. It was a small price to pay." 

Darcy stuck her tongue out at him. 

"So, you were working for SHIELD before." Steve said to Darcy, referring to the job she'd mentioned when they'd first met. 

"Yeah, not that we knew it. We were here setting up a new lab space here. Jane gets asked to consult on astrophysics shit all the time, it's how we make up the money to continue her research, because the grant money sure as hell wouldn't cover half the shit she builds. We didn't think anything of any of the consults, until the job in Norway. It was really sudden, and the urgency of it was really overstated." Darcy explained. 

"Then we saw the news and put two and two together." Jane added. 

"You should have seen Foster chewing out Fury. It was spectacular." Tony added. 

"But yeah. Stark swoops in with his offer, Jane takes it, and we moved into the Tower the next day."

"We're still getting my stuff shipped in. Hence why we were throwing stuff around earlier. At least I know who I'm working for."

"And it's made apartment hunting ridonkulously easy." Darcy grinned. 

Steve still wasn't sure exactly why Tony had hired Dr. Foster, but he figured that was probably a conversation for another time, and probably better held in private. 

"So, you two lovebirds are going to make a go of this, huh?" Tony asked, absently watching Jane down another glass of wine. Darcy looked up at him, still grinning.

"Yeah. Yeah, we are."

"Well, good for you. Just no sex in my labs, and try not to be too sickening in my presence." 

Darcy threw a strawberry at Tony's head.

"Not until you and Pepper stop being completely adorable." 

Tony made a face at her, and Steve found himself laughing.

This was going to be fun.


	2. First Date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's their first real date. It's ridiculous to be feeling nervous when he's already kissed the girl, isn't it?

Steve was nervous.

And it felt completely ridiculous to be nervous, when he already knew that he didn't have anything to worry about. He had already kissed her for cripes sake. And it wasn't like they hadn't been doing things together for the last couple of weeks.

He and Darcy had gone out for more than a few coffees, a couple of lunches on the fly, and Tony had hosted several group pizza nights.

But tonight was was meant to be their first 'real date'. They were going out for a proper dinner, alone, and then they were going to take in a movie. All low key, and no pressure.

He'd been worried that it was too old fashioned, it was, after all, the kind of thing that Bucky had done when they were younger. However, Darcy had been rather charmed when he'd voiced that to her, and she'd been quick to reassure him that it was perfect.

He didn't live at the Tower. Tony had offered, and maybe someday he'd take him up on it, but he liked his apartment in Brooklyn, and he wasn't looking to give it up just yet. It was a measure of autonomy that he enjoyed.

But the trek from his place to the Tower to pick up Darcy for their date had given him plenty of time to get a good case of nerves on, and they weren't going away.

JARVIS had directed him to Darcy's floor, and it wasn't hard to figure out which of the four apartments was hers. She'd decorated her door with a set of Christmas lights and a painted sign that read 'Darcy's Room'. Which he thought was a little strange, but he assumed there was a reason.

She answered the door wearing jeans and a sweater that looked great, and a pair of fluffy bunny slippers that made him smile.

"Hey." She greeted him.

"Hey, you look nice."

This time she blushed. He liked that he could get a blush out of her. She was so outrageous sometimes, but a simple compliment could turn her as red as he did.

"Thank you, so do you. Come in, I'm just about ready."

He followed her inside, and she puttered around with a hairbrush and swapped her slippers for a pair of sneakers that looked like a pair that his mother had scrimped and saved months for months to buy him for his birthday once as a child. It was things like that that sometimes still caught him up short.

He shifted from foot to foot while he waited, not entirely sure what to do with himself, except look around her apartment.

All of the Tower's apartments came with the standard furniture, he'd been inside a couple of them since he'd started coming by on a regular basis. Jane's looked like a bomb went off in it at the best of times, something that Darcy assured him was fairly normal for Jane. Banner's looked like it was barely lived in, probably something to do with the fact that he'd only stayed there for a week or so before going off on a 'sabbatical'. Steve had worried when the man had disappeared, but Tony had assured him that he would be alright, that 'sabbatical' was Banner code for 'I just need some peace and quiet for a while, I'll be back when I'm not feeling like I need to destroy half the city'.

Darcy seemed to have viewed her apartment as a blank canvas.

She'd repainted all the walls of the living room differing colours, and had decorated using swathes of fabric and ribbons. Photographs in crazily decorated frames had places of honour on her walls. There was one large one of Darcy and Jane making faces at the camera that he liked, mostly because of how carefree a moment it must have been. She'd traded out the standard lamps for some mismatched lamps that had come from a thrift store that she'd found in midtown, and a few rugs that she'd found at the same place covered random spots on the floor.  
At first glance, it looked like a mishmash of print and colour that didn't go together, but his artist's eye picked out where certain colours in the prints complemented or matched colours on the walls. There was a crazy harmony to it.

She'd once called her style bohemian chic. Her living space matched it perfectly.

"Okay! Oh, is that for me?"

Suddenly, Steve remembered that he was in fact holding a Tiger Lily that he had found tragically separated from the rest of it's fellows on his way to the Tower. It wasn't damaged, and as he'd looked at it he'd thought that she'd prefer it to something that he might have picked up from any flower shop.

"Yeah...well, the last time that I had something that might have been a date, this was the kind of thing guys did. If it's corny or whatever, you don't have to do anything with it."

Darcy deftly plucked it from his fingers and tucked it in her hair with a bobby pin she pulled from a pocket.

"Tiger lilies are my favourite flower, Steve. I love it, thank you."

"You're welcome. Shall we?"

He grinned at her, and she grinned back offering him her arm.

"We shall. JARVIS, I'm out, hold my calls."

"Yes miss."

And they were off.

* * * *

The restaurant was nice.  It was another one of Darcy's finds, a little Greek place close to the theatre that they were going to go to later.  
  
"They make their tzaziki on site, it is the best I have ever tasted."  She told him as they made their way there.  To date, none of Darcy's recommendations had fallen short of the mark, so he was more than willing to take her at her word, even if he wasn't really familiar with what she was talking about.    
  
They ate something called gyros, each stuffed with generous amounts of chicken and smeared with the stuff she called tzaziki, which really was quite tasty.  Darcy regailed him with stories of growing up in California in what she called a new normal family.   
  
"My parents divorced when I was seven.  Frankly, it was something of a relief, they'd been fighting with each other for years before that.  I'm an only child originally, but when my parents both remarried I gained a step brother who is all kinds of wonderful, and a step sister who is all kinds of bitch.  She was great fun to play pranks on though."  
  
To Steve, who'd always been an only child, even this sounded better than getting packed off to an orphanage at age twelve because he doesn't have anyone else in the world.   
  
Rather than dwell on that though, he told her raucous stories about living on a tour bus with about two dozen women that made her laugh.  
  
When they got to the movie theatre, their choices were a slapstick comedy that made Steve cringe, a sappy romance that made Darcy make gagging noises in her throat, and an action movie.  
  
After Darcy gave a synopsis of each movie that had him laughing as they paid for their tickets, they sat through the action movie.  Darcy, it would seem, is incapable of watching movies without a commentary, and she whispered silly things into his ear during the movie that made him want to roll in the aisles laughing.  He still enjoyed the movie, even if he could have done all the action himself, without any cinematic magic.  Though he enjoyed being silly with Darcy more.   


* * * * 

  
When he dropped her off at her apartment later, she stood on her toes to kiss him softly.  
  
"So.  This was an awesome date."    
  
"Yeah?"    
  
"Yeah.  One of the best that I've ever had.  Most of the guys I've dated in the past have usually tried to get up into my shirt before the opening titles are finished."    
  
Steve frowned.  There were a lot of things he was getting used to in this century, but the way people behaved around each other had changed drastically, and the depths of it surprised him still.  Even in full stride, Bucky at least waited until after the movie before trying to get a girl's dress off.  What had happened to being a gentleman?  
  
He must have said that out loud, because she was grinning at him.  
  
"Gentlemen are a rare breed these days, Steve.  And you may well be one of a kind.  Don't worry though, guys like that are the reason I carry my taser, nobody ever gets anywhere that I don't want them to."  
  
"Still..."  
  
"I know.  A lot of this is culture shock for you.  And I don't imagine you really want to get used to the levels of depravity some people get up to.  Sometimes I don't even want to.  So, let's think of better things, do you want to come in for a while?  I've got wicked coffee in my kitchen."    
  
"I'd love too, but I've got a meeting at SHIELD headquarters tomorrow morning, I should get home and sleep some."  
  
She only looked disappointed for a moment, but he still wished that he didn't have that meeting, but it couldn't be helped.    
  
"Okay, we'll save it for another time.  But, before you take off into the night..."  
  
She grabbed hold of his collar, and yanked him down to where she could reach without standing on her tiptoes, and kissed him again.  Thoroughly.    
  
She let him go just as he was reflecting that her tongue was a wickedly delightful little thing, and that it couldn't hurt to come in for a moment, and grinned at him saucily.  
  
"Just a preview.  So you don't forget how awesome we are."  
  
"Oh....there's no worries for that, I can tell you."    
  
He bade her goodnight after that, and left the Tower whistling.  And as he headed off up the street, he reflected that his nerves had completely disappeared at some point over the course of the evening, and he wasn't quite sure when.  Probably when she first smiled at him.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The line about the flower is shamelessly pilfered and paraphrased from 'The Holiday'  
> "The last time I had a date, this is what we did. If it's corny, or it's going to to ruin your outfit, you don't have to wear it."


	3. Amazing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jane and Steve have a conversation.

Darcy wasn't in the lab when he swung by on his way home from the SHIELD offices. At first glance, it didn't look like anyone was in the lab, but after a moment and following the sound of muffled curses, he found Jane's legs sticking out from underneath one of her machines.

"Good afternoon Jane." There was a thump, followed by more muffled cursing and the tiny scientist appeared from under the equipment rubbing the back of her head.

"Jesus, Steve! Don't do that!" He winced and gave her a sheepish look.

"I'm sorry, I didn't meant to startle you."

"It's okay, it's not the first time that someone's surprised me. Usually it's Darcy."

"Yeah. I was actually looking for her." Jane got off the floor and looked around.

"Oh...I think she went to get lunch. She'll probably be back soon..." Steve tried to hide a smile. Darcy had told him many tales of Jane's complete focus on her work, but he'd never seen it in action.  Jane caught him though and shot an elastic band at him.

"Shut up."

"I didn't say anything."

"Yeah, well, I know how much Darcy talks, I know what you were thinking."

"I admit nothing."

"Smart move. Come on, pull up a stool, you can wait in here for her to come back."

He found one that wasn't covered in paper and bits of computer components and settled at one of the high benches. Jane bustled around, flicking switches and writing down things that she read on screens, and then yanked over another stool and sat across from him.

"I actually wanted to talk to you." She said.

"You do?"

 

"Yeah..."

"About what?" Jane put down her sheaf of papers and her pen and looked at him over the tops of her folded hands.

"I wanted...Darcy's been a different person since she found you. Back in New Mexico...she was sarcastic and bordering on annoying sometimes...there were a few times that I wished that just one other person had applied for that internship...but she really was good. I don't think anyone could have done my notes the way she did. And I got to know her better, after...well, after Thor."

There was both a sadness and a ferocity to her expression for a moment and then she sighed heavily and ran a hand through her hair.

"You may have noticed that I'm a bit obsessive. I think without Darcy, I'd have been crushed under something or starved to death. But I learned that under all that sarcasm is an understanding and kind of lonely girl. She grew kind of a tough skin over the years I guess. But she's become the best friend that I could ever have. When she came to the airport that day with the biggest smile I've ever seen her wear, I knew something good had happened to her, and I was really happy that she was happy."

She paused for breath, and Steve felt like he should say something, but he just wasn't sure what he should say.

"I wasn't kidding, about the hysterics. When she saw the footage airing on TV, she was just devastated. All we could see was the destruction that was going on, and all she could see was the casulties that were going to happen. She was so mad at the universe for giving her something to be happy about, and then taking it away again. She didn't even know your last name so she could see if you turned up on any of the lists. I think that was what upset her the most, she felt like she hadn't tried hard enough to be able to find you herself."

She was talking about the lists that the City of New York published monthly, of those that were confirmed killed during the invasion, and those that were still missing.  Steve didn't like thinking about them, they reminded him too much of the casulty lists he used to visit back before the serum, checking to make sure that Bucky's name wasn't on them. As much as he hated the lists, he couldn't imagine what it felt like not being able to look for someone you cared about on them.

"Anyway...all of that rambling was really just to say that I'm glad you're in her life. She's put up with so much of my brand of crazy, she deserves something in return." Steve found himself smiling at her.

"I don't really know what to say to all that, but I'm glad she's in my life too."

At that moment Darcy came into the lab, carrying a couple of large bags of Chinese take out.

"Okay, I have enough food to feed a small army, or Steve when he's been running...oh, hey! I didn't know you were coming by." Her face fairly lit up when she saw him, which gave him a warm feeling in his chest, and made Jane smile and wink at him. He stood and took the bags from her hands, setting them on the table before wrapping her up in a tight hug. 

"Hey...what's all this about? Not that I will ever complain about hugs, but has Jane been depressing you? You should know by now not to listen to all her science rambling, it'll depress anyone who isn't a genius."

Jane snorted and started opening up the bags.

"Nah. We've been talking about you, actually."

"Oh really. Should I be worried?"

"No. It was good talking. Did you know that you're pretty amazing?" He asked her, kissing her cheek. She smiled up at him.

"I keep getting told that, so it must be true."

"It really is."

"Well, I think you're pretty amazing. Did you bring your amazing appetite? Because I really do have enough to feed you, though maybe not if you're just coming off a run."

"I think I'll be fine."

"Good, I'm starving, lets eat!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is largely a filler chapter. But there aren't many fics featuring Jane having a heart to heart with Steve, and I think that as Darcy has taken care of her, she'd be vested in Darcy being taken care of. I know my best friend has had similar things to say to my husband about me.


	4. Fearless

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Darcy is fearless.

One of the things that Steve had noticed about Darcy was that she was largely fearless.  For the most part, he was okay with that, after all, it was the kind of thing that he liked in a woman, really.   But the level of her fearlessness worried him a little occasionally.  

Especially when it came to her own physical safety.

She drove like she was driving a jeep in a minefield.  She called it 'New York driving', though Jane had told him once that she'd driven like that in the deserts of New Mexico too.  That had prompted a conversation about exactly whose fault hitting Thor with the van had been, and the gleam in Darcy's eyes when Jane brought up the fact that Darcy had tased him also unsettled him.   

Apparently she had a full motorcycle license of her own, and had purred over his bike like a kitten. She had then turned big puppy dog eyes on him and begged him to let her take it for a drive.

He had yet to relent on that front, not so much that he didn't think she could handle it, but he just wasn't comfortable letting someone else ride it yet.  To use one of her phrases, it 'weirded him out'.

She shrugged it off though, as she was apparently saving up for her own bike, and fully expected to take him on in a road race.

He wasn't sure how he felt about that yet.

In the meantime, she rode behind him and freaked him out by letting go of him and laughing as she fist pumped or something equally crazy with her arms.

But, she was also not afraid of Bruce.

And that was what earned her some serious respect.

When he'd first turned up again after his sabbatical, he'd be the same as before.  Equal parts brilliant scientist and nervous man.  He'd come to better grips with the 'Other Guy', but he was still leary about letting too much slack in his reigns.

The lab assistants were afraid of him, and it was obvious. They weren't overt about it, they still did their jobs well and didn't complain, but you could feel it in the air when you went into his lab.

Even Tony had noticed.

And if Tony noticed, then Bruce had definitely noticed.

It was making him tense.  Which made the lab assistants even more tense.

Darcy, on first meeting the man, had walked right up to him and hugged him.

Darcy liked hugs. A lot.

If you believed everything that Tony said, it was one of the reasons he liked her so much, since apparently he was also a hugger.

And she gave great hugs.  She had a way of wrapping a person up completely in her arms and folding you into her warmth.  He'd been on the recieving end of a number of her hugs, and it still boggled his mind how she could manage to enfold him so well, when he was a good foot taller and twice her size.  

And witnessing this occasion, Steve could see that it was exactly what Bruce needed, 

After that, Steve would often find her in Bruce's lab, when she wasn't making Jane eat or collating data.

She'd bring him the tea that he liked, or a snack, or she'd just be keeping him company.

She had also sat down with the other lab assistants and talked to them about what they were worried about, and what ideas they might have about what could be done about it to help make everyone's lives better.

That had raised her higher in a lot of views, as rather than take sides, she considered all points of view fairly. He supposed it was something she'd taken away from her schooling. In the end, it was decided that the lab assistants would rotate. 

Bruce was a physicist, but there were other disciplines that many of the assistants had trained in, or had interests in.  She'd called it a cross training exercise, and drawn up a schedule.  She'd even included herself in the rotations for Bruce's lab, for one, because when Jane didn't have data to enter or collate, she didn't have a lot else to do.  For two, she liked Bruce.  

The rest of the assistants would move in pairs, and spend a two weeks in each research section of the department, barring Jane's lab, since the only person who knew how to deal with all that mess was Darcy herself.  That, and Jane was far too worryingly involved in her research to be able to learn a new assistant.  

The lab assistants had applauded and endorsed the schedule, Tony had approved it, and they were all were much happier.

Which meant that Bruce was much happier.

And since Bruce was happier, most of the rest of the building's workers were happier, since they weren't looking at a potential Hulk out, thirty stories up.   

Weeks later, when Steve was exercising some of his skills, he drew a picture of Darcy for her desk, a cartoon caricature of Darcy, the queen lab rat of R+D, sitting on a throne of office supplies, surrounded by other happy lab rats.

She loved it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It is a very weird feeling watching someone drive off on your motorcycle. Even weirder is the idea that you may be riding on the back of your own motorcycle. Thankfully, I haven't had to do that yet.


	5. Offer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve is pissed. Tony does the bonding thing. Sort of.

Steve was not happy. 

He'd had a meeting at SHIELD headquarters that morning.

It had not gone well. 

The way that SHIELD operated had rubbed him the wrong way since he first woke up in the 21st Century. He got that they were a covert operation, he understood that. It was the level of subterfuge that bothered him. There seemed to be secrets upon lies, and lies upon secrets, and navigating through to anything that resembled the truth was nearly impossible. And even if he'd been okay with that, the way that they manipulated people still would have rankled. 

Tony had a phrase, 'lying liar who lies.' He was finding it rather appropriate. But what went on this morning...it was beyond appropriate. 

He was pounding the punching bag pretty hard when Tony wandered into the gym. 

Steve could tell he wasn't there for a workout. For starters, in the months that he'd been spending time at the Tower, he'd never seen Tony anywhere near the gym, he was usually up to his elbows in machine parts or talking math and physics with Jane or Bruce. Second, even though he wasn't wearing one of his expensively tailored suits, he was wearing jeans and a sleeveless shirt, not entirely appropriate for a workout, and he was covered in grease marks practically from head to toe and tapping at one of his tablets absently. 

"Something bothering you, Cap?" He asked as he sat himself down on a bench. 

"What do you want, Tony?" 

"Hey, I'm just here as an outlet, if you will. JARVIS may have mentioned you were out of sorts to Darcy. Unfortunately, Foster's got her tied up, and I was taking a break anyway..."

"I don't really want to talk about it." Steve ground out around gritted teeth. 

"Really? Are you sure? Your stance reads 'pissed at SHIELD' even from back here. Since you were there this morning for a meeting..."

Steve growled and landed one final punch that sent the bag flying into the wall opposite. 

"Fine. Whatever. They've been tailing me. They had a file folder of pictures of Darcy and I. They've been following us on our dates, our lunches...everywhere. And they had the nerve, the fucking balls, to try and tell me that it's an 'inappropriate relationship'." 

Tony's eyebrows had risen when he had cursed, but to his credit he said nothing. He sat down heavily next to Tony on the bench.

"What gives them the right? Who are they to tell me who I can and cannot have in my life? What is wrong with the world now that a guy can't have a private life?"

"A world that lives in the headlines of tabloid newspapers." 

"Darcy has a word that works really well. It's shitty." 

"It really is, even if you like that sort of thing." Steve narrowed his eyes at the other man, and Tony finally looked up from his tablet. "Alright, look. You know I have no love for SHIELD. I don't play nicely with their kids and I don't like to share my toys. They're also very underhanded when they don't get what they want from people. Right now, what they want is you neatly under their thumb to do their bidding when they want you to. Getting yourself a girlfriend is not on their agenda. And even if it was, a subversive little maniac like Lewis is definitely not their idea of the perfect girlfriend for their national icon. That's probably why I like her so much." 

Steve swiped at his face with a towel and sighed.

"They still don't have the right to tell me how to live my life."

"They'll try. As long as they think you owe them, they'll try. The key to that, is not letting them have that." 

"What do you mean?" 

"I've been holding onto this for a while." 

He handed him the tablet, and intrigued, Steve looked at the screen.

"This...Tony, this is a job offer." 

"Yes." 

"As VP of Security for Stark Industries." 

"A ridiculously well paid VP of Security for Stark Industries." 

"Tony..."

"You don't have to give an answer now. But, think on it. SHIELD will make you do whatever they want while they're paying you. They'll make it out like you owe them. This is a...way out, so to speak. It's the same thing I did for Foster and Lewis." 

Steve frowned, and opened his mouth to say something, but Tony wasn't looking at him. 

"I had JARVIS get into SHIELD's system and look her up after Thor left. Coulson had mentioned something about moving her out of the country to consult, and he'd waxed so poetic about Jane Foster, I was curious. Like they said whenever it was that we were all out getting drinks, they'd been sending her on consults since he'd been here last, slowly learning more from her the more that they sent her out to places. All under the disguise of a legitmate lab. They've been monitoring all of her systems, had their greedy fingers buried deep into her computer systems, keeping tabs on and leeching her information. Half of what they were doing with the tesseract was based on Jane's research, and she didn't know a thing about it. And then, when everything went tits up, they sent her to another continent. She would have been able to figure all that shit out in minutes, and they sent her off. Why? I don't know. But it wasn't a fair play for her, or for Thor no matter how he wants to pretend he was glad they'd packed her off. And I wasn't going to let them keep her on that string. Same with you. Their reasons, whatever they are, are bullshit, and I'm not letting it happen without giving them a good fight."

Steve stared at him, oddly touched. There wasn't a lot about Tony Stark that reminded him of Howard. They were both extreme characters, and both brilliant but their mannerisms weren't the same. Every once in a while though, something of the father came out in the son, and this staunch support of the people that he considered friends, people that he cared about, made him really remember the first Stark that he'd known.

"So. Think about it. Talk to Darcy about it if you want. If you decide you want it, sign that and give it to Pepper." 

"I will...thank you, Tony." The man shrugged, but Steve wasn't going to let him just shrug something like this off. 

"I mean it. I know we haven't always seen eye to eye. But you're probably the closest that I have to a real friend here now. So, thank you for this. For thinking about things like this. And I know that you don't like to hear it, but your father would have been proud of you. At least, the Howard Stark that I knew would have been." 

Tony smiled, a real smile, not a smirk, at him.

"Thanks. I like to think that if he'd live to see it, he'd be proud of both of us." 

He got up to leave, but turned at the door with a smirk.

"Nice bonding with you, Cap. We'll have to do it again sometime, only next time with alcohol involved." 

Steve threw his sweaty towel at his face and laughed as he watched him splutter around getting it off. 

* * * *

Later, he was paging through the offer on Darcy's sofa while she paced like an angry cat.

"Are you serious? They had pictures? Of us? How many pictures are we talking about here? A couple, a lot?"

"A lot." 

"Beautiful. What were we doing? I mean, it's not like we get naked in public...or, you know, anywhere, yet."

He laughed sharply at the teasing tone of her voice, but focused on her question.

"They're all of us just, out. On dates, getting lunch, walking in the park. Stuff like that."

"And they had the fucking balls to tell you that I wasn't 'appropriate'?" 

"You know, that's just what I said to Tony earlier." He said it with a grin and she stopped pacing, folding her arms across her chest.

"I hope you told them to go and fuck themselves."

"Of course I did. Well, not in those exact words, but I did tell them where they could shove their 'inappropriate' and stood over Fury's desk while he deleted the files that he had -and- watched him send out the order to withdraw the watch detail. I also told him exactly what we would do to them if we caught anyone following us."

"We?" 

"Well, I know I'd toss someone through a wall, but surely you'd be getting out your faithful taser as well?"

"Damn straight." 

"Well then." 

"Alright." She sat down on the sofa with him, and draped herself over him. Chin resting on his shoulder to peer down at the tablet. "So. What's this job that Stark's offered you?" 

"VP of Security." 

She sucked in a breath slowly.

"That's... pretty huge." 

"Yeah. But, the whole job description is stuff that I know how to do. I've done it before, and I'm still doing it, really. I'm a tactitian, I look at a situation and see how to go about getting through it. I know how to plan, how to make things work, where to look for holes, how to build a team."

"And he's going to pay you really well to do it too, have you looked at all those zeros."

Steve laughed at her.

"Darcy...that's not the point."

She giggled, that amused giggle at him that had entranced him so much when he first heard it. 

"Yes, I know. But it's sure a nice bargaining chip."

"I guess. I'm not sure how I feel about it though, SHIELD..."

"Doesn't own you, Steve. Just because they pulled you out of the ice, doesn't mean that you're beholden to them."

He was quiet for a moment, thinking about that, as Darcy settled on him with her head on his leg and switched on the television, turning it to one of the movies that she was slowly catching him up on. This one had something to do with Americans and graffiti, but he wasn't sure exactly why he needed to watch it. 

"You think I should take it then?" 

She looked up at him from his lap with a small smile.

"Yes. What are you going to do for SHIELD outside of when they call you for some mission? Train rookies? Get weapons training? You can do that here, and you'd still be going on those missions too. For what it's worth, I think you'd be great at it. And at least Stark will give you something to do with all your free time."

And that was it really. He had nothing to do with his days except sit and learn something new about the world he was now living in that, at best, made him feel ambivalent, and at worst, depressed him.

This was an opportunity to do more, and that was really all that he ever wanted. 

Darcy grinned while she helped him put an electronic signature on the file and emailed it to Pepper.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I will admit that the idea of SHIELD following them and taking pictures is inspired by one of the stories in the Leading with My Heart, posted here. Excellent series, I do not mean to offend or plagarise, it is just a great idea that also fits with my overarching "SHIELD are meddlers" that I'm going for.


	6. Fallout

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In retrospect, he probably should have expected some fallout with SHIELD.

In retrospect, he probably should have expected some fallout with SHIELD.

However, he did not expect Nick Fury to turn up at the Tower three days later, spitting mad and standing in front of he and Darcy on their way out to lunch. 

"Rogers. What the hell is this about?" 

Fury held up a copy of a resignation that Pepper had had drafted for him. He'd signed it yesterday, and had been told that it was going to be sent over that day.

"That would be my resignation letter, sir. If you're looking for my access pass, that's being couriered to your attention. It should be on your desk by the morning." 

"No, I am not looking for any God damn access pass, Captain. I want to know just how you think you can just resign from SHIELD." 

"Because the last time he checked, he was a free man and had the right to choose his employment where he liked." Darcy growled at his side, and both of their attention shifted to her.

"I don't believe that I was speaking to you, Ms. Lewis."

"And I don't believe that I care. He never signed anything agreeing to work for SHIELD. You only have that," she pointed at the letter, "as a courtesy. You don't own him." 

"We pulled him out of the ice..."

"Did he ask you to do that? Did he reach out telepathically and say to your team in the Arctic, 'Hey, if you guys get me out of this giant block of ice, I'll come work for your shady agency of liars and thieves for life?' Last time I checked, telepathy wasn't one of his abilities, so I don't think he did." 

"SHIELD pays him a substantial..."

"When you tip your lunch waiter, do you expect him to serve you dinner at your house?" 

"Ms. Lewis..." Fury thundered, and Steve pulled her back from him, more for Fury's safety than her own, she was fingering her purse rather menacingly, and there was intent glowing in her eyes. As much as he was sure she'd really like to let loose on the man, he didn't really want to be responsible for putting him in the hospital. 

"Darcy, it's okay." He told her, drawing her away gently. She calmed with a deep breath and released her hold on her bag, stepping behind him, though the scowl remained firmly in place. He turned back to Fury.

"Darcy is correct sir. I have never officially agreed to contract with SHIELD, and I am free to choose alternative employment. Stark Industries has offered me a position that will allow me to use my skills. I will continue to serve as Captain America with the Avengers Initiative as called for, you needn't worry about that being an issue." 

Fury's glare was icy, but after a moments consideration, he backed off.

"I don't suppose I can change your mind once it's made up, can I, Captain." 

"No sir. No one has managed to do that yet."

The glare remained firmly in place, but some of the hostility dropped from his demeanor. 

"For what it's worth, I do understand. This is as close to normal as you can probably get. I just didn't want it to be because of the surveillance detail." 

"To be honest, that may have been what started it. But, I made my decision because this will let me do what I do on a regular basis, rather than sit around on my hands." 

"I'll have to seriously sweet talk the council. They're furious." 

"All due respect, that's not my problem."

"No, I don't suppose it is. See you around Captain. Ms. Lewis." He bit out her name like it pained him to say it, and turned to stalk down the hallway before he saw the obscene gesture Darcy threw him. She grinned sheepishly at the look he gave her.

"He pisses me off." She said with a shrug. He chuckled, and drew her to him with an arm around her waist.

"You are quite the spitfire, aren't you?" 

"When it comes to the people I care about, I'll take it to the wall. You should have seen me yelling at him after we got back to the States. Stark didn't mention that when he was talking about the dressing down Jane gave him. There's footage somewhere. Stark probably has it bookmarked for entertainment." 

Steve pressed a kiss to her lips.

"I appreciate it. I don't think my arguments would have been quite as colourful as yours. Telepathy and lunch waiters are defintely original." 

She grinned again.

"Yeah, well. It seemed appropos when I said it." 

"Did you just say 'appropos'?"

"Lord, yes I did. I have been spending too much time with Jane and Bruce, save me!" She swooned over dramatically with a giggle. 

An elevator dinged open and Tony spilled out of it, a flurry of grease spotted limbs and bits and pieces of detritus from his lab. 

"Aw, damn...did I miss the show again? JARVIS, tell me you have that recorded."

If the computer could have sighed, it probably would have. Sometimes JARVIS reminded Darcy of Futurama's Kif. 

"Yes sir." 

"Queue it to my tablet!" 

They heard the tinny versions of their voices replaying everything that had just been daid, and Tony was laughing so hard he was practically crying.

"Oh, I knew there was a reason that I liked you so much, Lewis. We should make you our Avengers liason, you'd be fucking great at it." 

Darcy blushed beside him and Steve chuckled.

* * * *

When they got back from lunch, there was a new employment offer sitting on Darcy's desk.


	7. Gala

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gala preparations are fun when you're trying to manhandle two scientists and Captain America into something resembing formal wear.

One of the first things that Darcy was responsible for in her new role as official Avengers liason was a fundraising gala for the city of New York. 

Not necessarily the planning of said gala, that was being handled by the Mayor's office. Her responsibility was determining who could attend, and then haranguing them into doing it.

Her options were somewhat limited, since Barton and Romanov were still MIA. 

After Thor had taken Loki, the two spies had driven off in one of SHIELD's cars and hadn't been seen since. Natasha had been in contact about once a month since then, updating them on Barton's recovery, but being generally vague about where they were and when they were considering coming back. She had sent an email to Darcy directly, essentially letting her know that they were on their own schedule, they'd come back when they were ready, and by the way, welcome to the team. 

Darcy had been appropriately terrified that Natasha was going to appear out of the woodwork and murder her, but Steve assured her that she was like that with everyone. 

So, that left Steve, Tony and Bruce. And Jane, because the woman needed to get out. Pepper was already commited to represent Stark Industries, so Tony would be easy, all Pepper would need to do was throw a suit at him and drag him out by his collar. The other three were a little more problematic, and were going to require a plan of attack.

Jane, she would need to force out of the lab and into a store that sold real woman's clothes, not the kind of t-shirts that both she and Darcy loved to horde. She would lay even money that Bruce did not own a proper suit, and she knew that all Steve had was his dress uniform, which was completely awesome in it's vintageness, but it smelt of mothballs. 

A shopping trip was in the cards, and all that remained was to decide if she was going to go for broke and herd them all out together, or break it up into two trips. 

In the end, she decided that it would be easier to pry Jane out of the lab on her own and then take the guys out later. That decided, she requisitioned a company card with a decent limit that would afford a couple of dresses and a pair of good suits and started sourcing ladie's boutiques within walking distance of the Tower. 

* * * 

"I cannot believe I fell for this." Jane moaned, eyeing herself in the mirror.

"Me too. You probably would have been more on the ball if you'd slept last night."

"Hush. I was working."

"Jane, you're always working." 

"Don't use that tone, Darcy. I am impervious to that tone." 

"I wouldn't have to use the tone if you would actually listen to me and eat an occasional meal without having to be poked with a cattle prod." 

"Darcy..."

"Jane. I get it. You know that I do. And you will make a breakthrough, I believe in that with my heart of hearts. But I keep telling you that if you run yourself into the ground, your reunion with Thor is going to be less awesome than it should be. You need to at least be able to stand on your own two feet when he comes to carry you off and have hot monkey sex with you."

"Darcy!" 

She made like she was horrified, but she was smiling in a way she hadn't smiled in a while as she glanced around the dressing area for the sales associate. 

"Eh, nobody's listening, and it's true. The UST off you guys was almost stifling in the end, there is no way that he's not just going to toss you over his shoulder and cart you off to the nearest bed. Which, by the way, will probably be yours, so I'd make sure to change the sheets once in a while." 

"Can we not talk about Thor carting me off to have sex with me for a moment, and tell me that this is an okay dress? I really want to be done with this." 

Darcy eyed the seafoam concoction and wrinkled her nose. 

"No. The colour is not you. Go and try that purple one I picked out." 

"That one has no back."

"Sure it does. It's just...low. C'mon Jane, the purple is totally killer, you haven't even tried it but I'm already picturing the make up I'm going to do with it." 

"You are not getting anywhere near my face with a make up stick."

"I will if I have to." 

Jane got off the pedestal and went back into her cubicle. A rustle of fabric and the seafoam thing was tossed over the door. 

"I still don't know why I have to go to this. This is an Avengers thing, isn't it?"

"It's a fundraising thing, which the Avengers are proud to support. You are an Avenger by proxy. Thor's not here, you're going in his place, even if we can't tell people that. Besides, you need to get out, and I am not going to this thing alone."

"Steve will be there."

"That's not the same. He'll need to do Captainy things, and I'll have to schmooze. Plus, I'm not sure we're really ready to have mouths flapping about our relationship. I need my friend there, Jane. I need to know that I can find you and nitpick all the politicians' wives' dresses." 

Jane laughed from inside the cubicle and Darcy heard the sound of the latch opening.

"Okay, I'm coming out, but if you laugh, I swear I am leaving you to your devices." 

She came out in the short purple dress that had caught Darcy's eye on their way through the store, and as predicted, it looked gorgeous on her. It complimented her skin tone extremely well, and it was cut so flatteringly to Jane's figure.

But while Darcy praised the dress and all it's good points to Jane, all she could really think about was how much weight the other woman had lost in the months since they'd booked it back to US soil, and the shadows under her eyes that she wasn't entirely sure she could cover up with make up. It was a sobering thought. 

And when they ran the Stark card through the check out, Darcy was contemplating the idea that when Thor did come back to earth, he was going to kill her for letting Jane get this bad. She would have to work on this. 

* * * 

If getting Jane out of the lab and into a dress store was a pain in the ass, getting Bruce Banner into a tailors was one of the labours of Hercules. 

She had cajoled Steve into going. He had argued for his dress uniform, hard. He liked it, it was comfortable, it was familiar, it was a good image, blah blah blah. She had countered that it smelled like it had been in a basement for 70 years, which, let's face it, it had. And while vintage Captain America was cool, the modern world needed to see an image of Captain America that fit with the times. And that meant a slick suit. 

She had sold him when she told him that by going to a tailor, the suit would be just as comfortable, and Bruce was going to have to wear one too. She had even sourced out a nice little tailor in the neighbourhood, they'd do his shop and reputation a world of good by going there. Nothing appealed to Steve more than the idea of helping out the little guy. 

Getting Bruce on board with this though, not so easy.

"Darcy, it's not a good idea."

"Maybe not, but it's happening, Doc."

"I'm not good in a crowd, you know that."

"Which is why I have a schematic of the gala set up, so I can give you escape routes when the need arises. You're going. And you're going to wear a suit."

"Darcy..." 

"You might as well just give up and let her dress you up, man. She's more tenacious than I am." Tony interjected from the other side of the lab.

"Thanks Tony."

"Why doesn't Tony have to go?" 

"Tony is going, even if Pepper has to drag him there by the ear. He doesn't have to go to the tailor, because he's already got a closet full of kick ass designer suits. I'm only asking you to get one. C'mon Doc, Steve's waiting in the car, and I promise, if you're a good boy, I'll let you go once the tailor dude finishes taking your measurements." 

She started taking his instruments from his hands and was easing him out of the lab coat. 

"I just..."

"You and Steve can both grumble about how annoying I can be together. I won't even exact revenge for it." 

"I..."

"And it's a nice quiet little tailor a couple blocks away. He's promised us his full attention, and no other customers for the entire time we're in there, which is a better deal than the store I manhandled Jane into for her dress." 

She caught Tony's amused expression as she hustled Bruce out of the lab and sent him a wink. 

"I'll bring your buddy back soon, Stark."

"Just don't let the tailor at him with the really big needles."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There will be more of the gala prep and the gala itself, stay tuned!


	8. Gala Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The rest of the gala prep, and the gala itself, more or less. The important parts of it.

The day after Darcy had strong armed the boys into the tailor's shop changed her entire view of the fashion world. Of course, the trip to the tailor's had been hilarious. The little old guy had been in raptures measuring Steve, and she had taken many pictures of both of them on the block in their shorts. Mostly because she wanted pictures of Steve in his shorts, and didn't want Bruce to feel left out.

Pepper Potts appeared in the door of her office in a fanfare of expensive heels and tailored suit.

"Darcy, good. Do you have a moment?"

Darcy nodded, as she'd just finished with the morning's emails and all of her appointments had been made.

"Perfect. I saw you'd taken Jane out shopping for a dress. Have you gotten yours yet?"

"Ah...no. I was busy yesterday getting a pair of reluctant Avengesr measured for suits."

"Excellent. What is your schedule like on Friday? My stylist is coming in with some of the samples from the latest shows, if you're free I'll have her bring in the fitter to get you measured."

"Uh...measured?"

Pepper looked up from her Starkpad and nodded.

"Of course. You're the public face of the Avengers. You can't be going around to events in a dress that has been obviously purchased from a store that doesn't quite fit right. Especially with your bustline."

Darcy glanced down at the girls without thinking, and then the fact that Pepper Potts was talking about her cleavage made her snort.

"Uh, okay. What about Jane though? We've already ordered hers, and I really don't think I can convince her away from her sciencing for a second run at such trivial things as dresses."

"For Jane's first run, the dress will be fine. We'll set her up with some stunning pieces of jewelry and get her into some killer shoes. This time she's there as part of Stark Industries, it would be different if Thor was here, but then I would have come to talk to you about this before now. Friday afternoon?"

"Uh, yes. Friday will be fine."

"Excellent. Two o clock onwards. And I'll have them bring in a few different designers to choose from...."

Darcy stopped paying attention as the meeting request came through to her email and the reality of getting set up in a designer dress started to set in.

* * *

"So then, she's just casually rattling off designers names that I might want to look into, y;know, to see who I might want to wear. She's talking, Vera Wang, Marchesa and frigging Versace. Versace, Steve! I am woefully unprepared to be wearing something as 'haute couture' as a Versace. I just know I'm going to end up spilling ketchup or something on it."

Darcy was complaining from her position reclined on Steve's sofa. He was milling around in the kitched with dinner, having been convinced (wheedled, cajoled) into making dinner. She had tasted some leftovers that he'd brought into the office one day (Captain America brown bags it, who knew?) and had been blown away.

"D'you really think they'll have ketchup at a fundraising gala?" He asked her, a smirk evident in his voice. She tilted her head against the arm of the couch to look at him upside down.

"Shut up. I did say 'or something'."

"Good qualifier."

"You're smirking at me. You think this is funny."

"Well, I might admit to finding it entertaining that you're going to be subjected to the same kind of treatment that you made Bruce and I endure."

She snorted.

"It is pretty ironic."

"I think Bruce and I should crash it, don't you? Maybe get a few pictures ourselves." He quirked his eyebrow at her and she laughed. It was totally a move that he's learned from her.

"I only took your picture because that's the closest to naked I've seen you. And I took the ones of Bruce because I didn't want him to feel left out."

Steve chuckled at her.

"I'm sure he appreciates it."

She shrugged.

"I do what I can. I'll wear some truly fantastic underwear for you, crash away. I'm still freaked out about the dress though. I'm going to wearing a dress that costs more than my first year of college."

"Well, if it helps, I'll be wearing a suit that costs more than my mother spent on food while I was growing up."

"Surprisingly, no. How did this happen? I'm a college grad who spends her waking life in jeans and t shirts. The only dresses I wear are jersey knits and look great with my sweaters. I don't do glam."

"Things just happen I guess. Personally, I'm kind of looking forward to this, expensive clothes aside. You're going to look gorgeous, and I can't wait to draw it."

Darcy sat up and turned to face him.

"You want to draw me in this dress?"

"Sure, I always want to draw you."

Darcy smiled at him and got up to lean over the breakfast bar and run her hands over his face.

"You are the sweetest man I have ever met, you know that?"

"You keep telling me."

"Well, it's true. You are completely unlike any guy I have ever dates, and I like it. I like it alot."

"I like you." Darcy grinned and kissed him, very thoroughly, though mindful of the stirfry he was working on.

"I like you too." She said when she let him go.

* * *

Pepper's stylist was a middle aged woman named Mae Whitmore who dressed as sharply as Pepper, but unlike Pepper, had an attitude to match. She'd taken one look at Darcy and had begun muttering about structured bodices and designers that accomodated 'such curves'.

To which Darcy had uttered a silent 'fuck you' to and had just taken up residence on one of the couches in Pepper's offices next to a pile of dresses that were firmly fastened into their garment bags. Truth told, she was a little afraid to touch them. The woman fluttered around Pepper exclaiming over the latest styles and what would work with her colouring. In the corner of the room, Steve sat unnoticed with his sketchbook, and she caught his amused smirk.

Darcy figured that it wouldn't take long to choose Pepper's dress, since it wasn't the woman's first rodeo. However she stopped paying attention when the fitter, an adorable little woman named Melanie started in on Darcy's measurements.

"Store sizes are never true sizes these days anymore, did you know that?" The woman asked as she wound a tape measure around her hips. "It is all vanity sizing anymore, to make us feel as though we have accomplished something, because now we can fit inot a six, when we were an eight three months ago. It's not real. The six is still the eight."

Darcy tried not to squeek as the tape went around her bust.

"I didn't know that."

"Hm. Yes. So, even women like Ms. Potts sometimes get a shock when they are measured against real sizes. A 36 bust is still a 36 bust, no matter the number."

"So, you're saying I shouldn't freak out when you tell me that I'm sitting on a 40 ass."

"Hush. You have a perfect hourglass figure. But yes, do not be upset that your dress will be a size sixteen rather than a size twelve."

"I can live with a sixteen."

"Excellent. You have a figure that will be easy to dress, despite what Ms. Whitmore mutters. It is your colouring that we now must compliment, that is where she will be able to help you the best."

"Yeah, I'm not really looking forward to that. She looked like she wanted to dip me in acid earlier."

The fitter laughed at that, but helped Darcy get into the first of the sample dresses that had been brought with her in mind.

It was gorgeous colour of blue and it hugged her curves very nicely.

She heard Steve's intake of breath behind her and met his eyes in the mirror with a smile.

Melanie chuckled as she straighened out a hem.

"He is yours, yes?"

"How did you guess?"

"It is not difficult. He is not Mr. Stark."

Darcy laughed this time.

"Then, yes, he's mine."

"I believe he approves of the colour."

This was said with a wink and Darcy found herself blushing.

"He does have an affinity for blue. And red, come to think of it."

"Hm. And one for you as well. I do not believe he has taken his eyes off you since you stepped in front of the mirror. But we shall try a red."

It was at that moment that the stylist appeared behind them, a measuring look in her eyes, though she seemed somewhat less hostile now that Darcy was dressed in something more acceptable.

"Excellent. Strong colours suit your colouring. This is a possibility. However, I am not sure about the cut of the hem against the length of your leg, it is not quite falling properly. Let's try the Vera Wang next."

Darcy tried not to sweat in the very expensive dress.

* * *

The night of the gala saw Steve nervously waiting in the lobby of Stark Tower with Bruce. Pepper, Darcy and Jane were 'being outfitted' as Pepper had put it. Darcy had called it something a little less flattering, but the result was the same. Tony had been waiting with them, but had wandered away when something on his phone had pinged.

He'd been whingeing about being locked out of his lab all day, and being forced into a monkey suit, though Steve was sure that that complaint was more for their benefit, since he knew Bruce was fidgeting and he was forcing himself not to fiddle with his tie.

Instead, he inspected the flower he'd found for Darcy one more time, checked that his shoes were still shiny enough and waited some more.

"T Minus three minutes." Tony appeared out of nowhere, startling Steve and Bruce apparently.

"Jesus Tony! A little warning maybe?" He grunted.

"Sorry" He waved his phone at them. "Text from Pepper, they're almost on their way down, there was a small issue with Dr. Foster's shoes."

Steve was almost tempted to ask, but decided that Darcy would give him the low down when they got down.

A few moments later, the elevator dinged and Steve drew himself straighter in expectation, and even Tony pulled himself out of his slouch, and actually buttoned up his jacket.

Pepper came off first, looking like she had stepped off the pages of a magazine. Her dress was white and had simple lines that accented her lean frame. Apparently the look was acceptable, because Tony was uncharacteristically quiet as she approached him with a warm smile.

"Jaw off the floor Tony, or we'll be late."

Jane was out next, shoved out of the elevator ahead of Darcy. Steve had to admit that the scientist looked extremely pretty all dolled up. Darcy had picked the dress well, even if she tottered slightyl in a pair of shoes that looked very expensive. That may have been why she was tottering. And then Darcy came into view.

He had seen the dress before. They had settled on a deep blue dress by a designer that he couldn't recall the name of, and it had been delivered to her apartment yesterday in a bag that she'd been afraid to open, lest she manage to ruin it before she got it on.

It had flattered her curves and brought out the blue in her eyes, and Steve had sketched about a dozen pictures of her in it just from seeing her getting fitted into it.

But the dress, with her hair done up in a fall of curls and the barest hints of makeup? HIs fingers itched. He committed the sight to memory for later. Much later.

She as looking up at him, even in her designer heels, she was still a couple of inches shorter than he was, and the look she was giving him warmed him to his toes.

"Hey. You look edible." She said, and he laughed.

"Ditto ma'am. Shall we?" He held out an arm and she laced hers through it with a grace that he'd never seen before. She shattered the illusion when she grabbed Jane's arm in passing and pushed her towards Bruce.

"Go and escort, Bruce, Jane. You both need pretty partners."

Bruce opened his mouth to argue, but Jane just shrugged and smiled.

"C'mon Bruce. I don't bite. I'm no Betty Ross, but I am pretty, according to Darcy and Pepper anyway."

"Foster, you're a knockout. Can we leave? I'm itching to laugh at you guys on the dance floor."

Tony earned himself a slap on the arm, but they all trouped out to where Happy was waiting with a limo.

* * *

The affair was large, tasteful, and very successful. There were plenty of people willing to part with their money in the service of a good cause, especially if they got the chance to see some of the inner workings of an Avenger or two as a door prize.

About half way through the night, the dancing started. Tony was out on the dance floor with Pepper, and it didn't look as though he was going to release her anytime soon, and Steve was finding himself in the sights of a number of society women who were making him extremely uncomfortable. Regrettably, Darcy was busy elsewhere schmoozing, and couldn't rescue him all the time.

Jane appeared at his elbow quite suddenly after he'd evaded another buxom blonde in a low cut dress.

"You won't get rid of them until you go and dance with someone." She said into his ear. "Come on, Darcy'll be finished in a few minutes, I'll keep you safe until then."

She tucked her hand into his elbo and tugged him out to the dance floor. She seemed to have mastered her shoes, and had relaxed some.

"Thanks." He said to her after they stepped onto the floor.

"No problem. I imagine Darcy'd do the same for me. If I actually had a date." She said it with a smile, but Steve could detect the edge of melancholy under her tone.

"If it helps any, he did want to find you. We just had to get Loki off planet as soon as possible."

"I know. I understand that. But...even a phone call? Someone could have managed that."

"If Stark had known, he'd have done his best, but Thor didn't mention you to us until after it was over. I know he was concerned for your safety."

"Yeah...I know. Thanks, Steve." "You'll get him back. Somehow. I know it." She grinned at him then, a smile that lit up her face, and Steve could see what had attracted his Norse friend in the first place.

"You should smile more, Dr. Foster. Like Tony said, you're a knockout."

Now she blushed, but the grin stayed.

"You're a charmer. Thank you."

"Hey, quit flirting with my boyfriend, Jane. You've got your own, absentia is not an excuse." Darcy appeared beside them, dancing with Bruce, who actually looked like he was enjoying himself.

"Swap?" Jane asked, and they deftly switched places, Jane moving Bruce off to a quieter corner and Darcy settling in Steve's arms with a sigh.

"I have been waiting all night for this, handsome."

"Me too. How'd the auction go?"

"Excellent. The prizes were very popular, and we've raised a good amount of money for the relief efforts."

"That's good."

"You still look edible in that suit Steve. I want to bite your shoulders. Maybe your hipbones." She was leering at him, and he laughed.

"Why, Miss Lewis, I do declare you are making a pass at me."

"Honey, I have gone beyond a pass and headed straight for a U turn. Exactly how firm are you on the whole sex before marriage thing, because we still haven't settled that question."

Steve looked her up and down.

"With you in that dress, doll? Not firm at all."


	9. The Press

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The press was inevitable.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks everyone for the lovely comments! As I'm working on other stories, this one will get added to as tidbits work their way out of my brain, but I have two chapters for you lovely readers tonight :) Enjoy!

It was inevitable that the press would get their hands on some material.    
  
With Darcy herself appearing in the public eye just as much as he was anymore, it was only a matter of time before some eager papparazzo looking to make copy spotted them out together.    
  
As it happened, the news broke while they were safely ensconsed in Darcy's apartment in the Tower.    
  
"Are we going out or staying in?"  Darcy asked from inside her closet.    
  
Steve shrugged, even though he knew she couldn't see him.    
  
"It's up to you, I guess."    
  
"What did we do last date?  We hung out at your place, didn't we?"   
  
If 'hung out' was the term for making out on his sofa for half an hour before putting a movie in his seldom used DVD player while making out for most of the movie.  He liked kissing Darcy.  A lot.  Apparently, she was okay with it, even if he did have some issues getting into her bras.    
  
"Let's go out then, I've been craving Korean barbeque, and I haven't exposed that particular bit of culinary awesome to you that.  Plus, I have shoes I need to test run."    
  
Steve's phone beeped amidst the sound of Darcy throwing shoes around in her bedroom.    
  
'TMZ is the devil'  
  
Steve frowned at the text message, confused, because he had no idea what TMZ was.    
  
Then Darcy's phone rang.  
  
"What up!"  She chirped into it in a sing song voice that made him smile.  Then her tone changed.  "What?  There's what?  Uh huh....  Well, fucknuts."  She emerged from her bedroom with a pair of heels in her hands and her skirt unzipped, and mouthed 'Jane' at him.  "Shit.  JARVIS!"  She snapped.    
  
_"Yes Ms. Lewis?"_  
  
"TV.  Find TMZ for me, please.  As quickly as possible."   
  
_"Very good, Ms Lewis."_   
  
The TV flickered to life and flipped over from a Tiny Toons marathon to a channel that Steve wasn't familiar with.   
  
But it was showing a grainy, but identifiable picture of himself and Darcy in mid kiss.  He even recognized where they were, it had been taken just the other week when they had taken a day and gone to Coney Island.  He could see the cotton candy in the hand that Darcy didn't have wrapped in his shirt collar.  
  
"Fuck."  Darcy cursed again.  "I'll call you later, Jane.  JARVIS, volume please."  
  
 _"...the reclusive Captain America, seen here out and about enjoying a Friday afternoon with Darcy Lewis, the newly appointed Avengers Liason.  They do make a pretty cute couple, don't they?"_   
  
_"Oh sure...but you have to wonder now exactly how she got the job as the Liason, after all she is pretty young."_  
  
 _"Sources say she graduated from Culver University last year with a degree in political science, so she does know how to work with people at least, but there's some mystery around how she attained her final credits - "_   
  
"I'll murder them."  Darcy hissed, and started tapping at her phone.  "Actually, no, Pepper's got a better idea.  A nice lovely slander suit."    
  
"I don't understand."  Steve said, confused about what exactly she was so angry about.  
  
She offered him a smile and brushed his cheek with her fingers.    
  
"You are unbelievably adorable.  They're implying that I got the job as Avengers liason because I'm sleeping with you.  And as that is not true, and they are saying it on national television, when Stark's legal team is done with them, they're going to regret very much that they didn't investigate dick."    
  
"Is this story going to be all over the newspapers tomorrow?"   
  
"Probably.  We'll probably have to give some kind of official statement and real interview at some point.  I'll have to look into our prefered journalistic mediums.  I think Pepper prefers People for the life pieces.  But, on behalf of every celebrity that these people malign, I want to kick their asses right now."    
  
Steve nodded.  He was okay with that.  He was not okay that the immediate assumptions about Darcy were so...uncomplimentary.  He reached out an arm and tugged her to him.   
  
"I'm sorry."  He said as he pulled her onto his lap.    
  
She twisted on his lap to face him.  
  
"For what?"   
  
"For them.  For putting you in this position."   
  
She was still smiling at him softly.   
  
"It's not your fault Steve.  This is what happens when you're in the public eye, I knew that.  The paparazzi was bound to spot us sooner or later.  I'm actually surprised they didn't find us sooner."   
  
"But still.  Your reputation..."    
  
"When Pepper and I get through with them, my reputation as a tough chick is going to be set in stone.  Besides, anyone who matters knows that I got this job because I'm badass and not afraid to get in people's faces.  I don't really care much what the general public thinks of me, this is more about the principle.  If you're going to claim that you're a journalistic organization, you have to actually be able to back up what you're saying."  
  
"I just wish this wasn't something we had to deal with.  I just want to be normal."  
  
"I know.  But honey, we are so far from normal, we're almost in another galaxy.  There's not much we can do except to accept it and move on."    
  
"Is this why you were hesitant about this?"   
  
She frowned at him.   
  
"I'm not sure I understand."  
  
"Back in Jane's lab, that day I first found you.  When you figured out who I was, you withdrew from me.  You weren't entirely sure you wanted to start this."  He gestured vaguely between them and understanding dawned in her eyes.    
  
"No.  It wasn't the press.  That was...it's hard to explain, but it was more that I was afraid of how this was going to play out.   Captain America has a lot of responsibilities and I'm still a little afraid that one day you'll go out on a mission and not come back.  But, the bigger part of t was that you are such an icon, and what would an icon want with a mess like me?  There are millions of prettier, more useful women out there who'd happily beat each other with clubs just to be in the same room as you.  What could you possibly see in me?"    
  
Steve stared at her, considering this image she had of herself for a moment, and found that he was tremendously sad that she saw herself like that.    
  
"Look at me for a sec?"  When she met and held his gaze, he continued.  
  
"I see a smart, loyal, beautiful young woman.  I see a woman who is sexy and sassy, and still blushes when someone gives her a compliment, when other women might expect it and laugh it off.  I see you.  And you make me laugh and feel like a normal guy for the first time in a very long time.  You're someone I can talk to, Darcy and that means more to me than anything.  Believe me when I tell you, there is no one better than you, Darcy Lewis."  
  
Tears were shining in her eyes, and she wrapped her arms around his neck to pull him into a hug.  He tied his around her waist, holding her just as tightly.    
  
"You make me feel like I'm the best girl on the planet.  And I'm not, not really."   
  
"But for me, you are.  And that's it.  I could stay with you forever."   
  
"Forever is a long time, Steve."   
  
"Probably a bit heavy, huh?"  He asked, using the term she'd used back that day in the lab.    
  
She smiled.  
  
"Maybe.  But that doesn't mean it's wrong."  She pulled back a little to run her hands through his hair.  "You are nothing like I ever expected in my life, Steven Rogers.  But, I am totally cool with keeping you in it.  I didn't really like the girl I was before you.  She was lonely and a little bitter and her only real friend was a woman obsessed with trying to blow a hole in the universe to get her would be boyfriend back.  Now...now I'm happy, and I'm not lonely, and my best friend is still trying to blow a hole in the universe, but I've got other friends now too, and a place in all the crazy that's going down."  
  
She kissed him then, deeply.    
  
"And, for the record, I can see a forever with you too."    


	10. Mission

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Avengers Assemble.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The second chapter of the evening, enjoy!

As inevitable as it was that the press would find out about Captain America's paramour, it was also inevitable that there would be a call to Assemble.  
  
Steve was in the middle of a staff meeting when the alert came in.  The moment the phone had gone off, he'd looked at his assembled team and apologized profusely.  They decided to reconvene their meeting when he was next available.  
  
There was some dust up in South America, someone had gotten a hold of some Chitauri weaponry and managed to hotwire it together into something dangerous and they were taking entire towns hostage.   
  
The call had come in through Darcy's office from SHIELD and she'd handled it with the utmost of professionalism, putting out the alert calmly and efficiently complete with the full mission briefing and a take off time for the jet.  A small team of SHIELD agents would be going with them.  Once the alert was put out, Steve went into Captain America mode, she'd seen him walk by her office on his phone issuing orders for equipment and haranguing Tony.  
  
She watched a lot of back and forth go across her computer screen, instructions and tentative action plans.  She had to admit, he was born to be a tactitian.   
  
Even so, worry knawed at her gut.  This was probably going to be an easy one, minimal risks and all that, but...she was sending her Steve into battle. It did not sit well.  
  
She hadn't planned on seeing them off.  She had work to do, a lot of calls to make, meetings and events to be rescheduled or to make apologies for.  People to put on standby.   
  
Then Pepper had texted her that she would meet her on the landing pad when they left, and she found herself texting back that she would be there.  
  
She worked for another half an hour, and then a small movement at her door caught her attention.  Steve, no, Captain America was standing there, wearing Steve's face.   Really, he was just wearing most of the suit, minus the head gear, but the contrast was startling.  She suddenly realized that this was the first time she'd ever seen him in the suit.  
  
"Hey."  He said, leaning agains her doorframe.  
  
"Hey."  
  
"We're wheels up in fifteen.  I just came by to...y'know..."   
  
"Say, 'see ya'?"  She asked, more lightly than she felt.  He ducked his head, making his hair fall into his eyes.  The look was so 'Steve', even in the suit, that she found herself smiling.   
  
"Somethin' like that, yeah."   
  
She's also never heard him sound so New York before.  Or at least, she'd never registered it before.   
  
She stood and came around her desk, beckoning him in.  He did so, coming to stand in front of where  she was leaning against the edge.  She reached out and hooked her fingers in his belt, pulling him in closer and hooking her legs around his.  She wounder her arms around him and rested her head against the star on his chest.  
  
"I won't tell you to be careful, because I know that careful will have nothing to do with it.  But...just come back in one piece, okay?"  
  
He dug a hand into her hair and held her there for a long moment.  When he did speak, it was in a low voice she'd never heard from him before.  
  
"Okay."   
  
"Kiss me then, soldier.  So you remember what you've got to come home to."   
  
He did, sweetly at first, then swiping his tongue along the seam of her lips, begging her to open for him.  When she did, it was all teeth clacking and tongues delving, much like their first kisses in the park.  But there was a tinge of desperation on the edges, but it was more just a simple promise.  I promise I'm coming home.  
  
When they drew apart Darcy traced her fingers to where his cowl was folded over his shoulders, and pulled it up over his head, tucking his hair under and fitting it over his eyes.  Then she leaned back and his arms fell away.  
  
"Ready for duty, soldier?"  
  
He stepped back and saluted her.  
  
"Yes ma'am."   
  
Bruce appeared in her doorway.   
  
"Hey Cap, coming?"   
  
"Yes, I'm on my way."   
  
Darcy hopped off the desk and followed them out the door and up to the landing pad.  Pepper was already up there, and Jane appeared at her side as they were all boarding the plane.  
  
Darcy was rather proud that the tears she had welling in her eyes didn't actually start falling until after Jane squeezed her hand as the plane took off.  
  
* * *  
  
She didn't sleep.  Pepper had quietly ushered herself and Jane into the penthouse suites, had JARVIS queue up a bunch of ridiculous movies, doled out pyjamas and wine, and they'd proceeded to have a good old fashioned sleep over.  And it had taken her mind off the fact that Steve was out in the jungle somewhere for a while, but it came back as soon as they'd gone to bed.  
  
Somewhere around four AM she kicked the covers off and headed for the kitchen.  She wasn't expecting to find Pepper sniffling into a mug of tea.  
  
"Oh...Pepper, I'm sorry, I didn't think anyone else was awake."   
  
"It's okay.  I couldn't sleep."   
  
"Me neither."   
  
"Would you like some?  It's...soothing I suppose."   
  
"Sure, sounds great."  
  
Darcy put the kettle on while Pepper dug out another tea bag and a mug.  Once Darcy had her tea, they say quiet for a moment before Pepper spoke.  
  
"I don't usually get like this.  By now...I'm almost used to him going out into hazardous situations.  I just...I keep seeing that footage of him flying that bomb through that portal.  There wasn't any footage of him coming back through it, you know?  And this is the first time he's gone out since the battle..."   
  
Her breath hitched and Darcy watched the great Pepper Potts pull herself back together, it was just that the edges of what she put together still seemed a little disjointed, not quite whole.  And wouldn't be until a man in an armored suit flew back through the door.  Darcy was just beginning to understand what that felt like.  
  
"They're going to be alright."  Pepper said in a much more level voice.  "After what happened here, some terrorists with alien tech are nothing.  I know I'm being silly."   
  
"The man you love is out in the jungle doing fuck knows what.  'Silly' doesn't enter into it.  I think it's okay to feel a little rattled, Pepper.  So, we'll sit here and lose a little sleep while our men fight bad guys.  It's no worse than losing sleep because you have a test you didn't study for.  Just with much better results in the end."   
  
She waggled her eyebrows at Pepper to make her laugh, and it worked.   
  
"How are things going with you and Steve?"  She asked, settling back in her chair with a smile.  Darcy smirked at her.  
  
"Ms. Potts, are you looking for gossip?"  
  
"I believe I am."   
  
Darcy laughed.  
  
"Well...things are going well.  He's the greatest guy I've ever dated.  Usually I've been lucky to land one that doesn't talk to my boobs, you know?"  She took a sip of her tea.  "I told him that he's nothing like anything I've ever pictured in my life, and it's true.  Nice guys like him don't end up with crazy chicks like me.  But, now that he's here, I can't really picture my life without him."   
  
Pepper was smiling at her.   
  
"I've found, that sometimes it's the people we least expect who make the most difference in our lives.  I'm happy for you, for both of you."   
  
Darcy smiled.  
  
"Thank you."   
  
 _"I beg your pardon, Miss Potts?"_  
  
"Yes JARVIS?"  
  
 _"I believe you wished to be informed when the team was on their way back."_  
  
"Yes, I did, are they on their way?"  
  
 _"An alert has been sent to SHIELD headquarters that the team's jet is on route back to Stark Tower."_  
  
"Thank you JARVIS.  Any injuries reported?"  
  
 _"Captain Rogers was apparently hit with a flying vehicle."_  
  
Darcy felt the blood drain from her face and her fingers gripped her cup in a white knuckled grip.  Pepper reached across and covered her hands with one of hers.  
  
"Is he going to be alright?"  
  
 _"The report states that he has cracked several ribs and broken a leg, however he should be largely recovered by the morning."_  
  
"Excellent.  And they'll be landing?"  
  
 _"In approximately two hours."_  
  
"Thank you JARVIS. Come on Darcy, you've got two hours to get some sleep before Steve comes home and you can worry over him."   
  
Smiling slightly, Darcy followed her out of the kitchen and back to the sleeping quarters.  Suddenly, she was exhausted. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to everyone who reviewed the two previous stories, you guys have inspired me to go from a single one shot to a multi chapter story :)


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